Jair Bolsonaro has been taken into custody after authorities determined he posed a concrete flight risk while under house arrest.
The one-time leader was found guilty of plotting a armed takeover in the ninth month and handed more than a 27-year term in jail, but he was staying under confinement pending court reviews.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the decision to arrest the 70-year-old politician was a preventative measure after "new facts" came to light.
This included trying to remove his ankle monitor and a call for a demonstration that could enable a possible escape.
Judicial Records Show Escape Risks
In a paperwork permitting the detention, Justice Moraes said information from the centre monitoring the former president's confinement suggested the one-time head of state's plan to remove the tracking monitor to ensure success in his escape.
This, it said, would be made easier by the chaos caused by the demonstration called by his offspring.
His offspring, his son Flávio, who works as a legislator, called for a meeting of his backers near the former president's residence to take place on the weekend.
The senator wrote on digital networks on Friday: Will you battle for your homeland, or watch it all from your mobile device there on your settee? I invite you to struggle with us."
He said the gathering would be so backers could offer prayers for his health and for the restoration of democratic rule in our nation."
Diplomatic Refuge Fears
Part of the judge's determination was the potential of the former president's move to foreign missions near the residence, considering that the probes revealed a history of organizing to seek refuge through a embassy office", a declaration said.
The legal document underscores that the US embassy in the national capital, the capital city, is situated around 8 miles from the former president's residence.
International Reactions
The former president's legal troubles have drawn the ire of fellow right-wing populist American leader President Trump, prompting him to enact a half-rate duty on goods coming from Brazil.
Bolsonaro is being detained in a Federal Police station in Brazil's capital city and will undergo a detention review on the following day.
Latest Court Petitions
It was only on the previous day that the his legal team asked the Top Court to authorize him to serve his whole jail sentence under home confinement, with tracking devices.
They also petitioned that Bolsonaro be allowed to depart his residence for medical care, saying he needed frequent medical attention for respiratory ailments and other illnesses.
Context of Sentencing
Bolsonaro was convicted of orchestrating a scheme aimed at maintaining his control after he lost the 2022 election to his ideological adversary, Lula.
High Court judges said that he knew of a plot which encompassed plans to murder Lula and his VP candidate, his vice-presidential candidate, and to detain and kill Alexandre de Moraes - the High Court judge who has been managing his judicial proceedings.
The conspiracy was prevented because it couldn't obtain the endorsement of the military leaders. His successor was sworn in without incident on the first day of 2023.
But a week later, on the eighth of January, numerous Bolsonaro supporters stormed and vandalised official structures in the federal district, Brasília.
The security forces intervened and around fifteen hundred individuals were arrested.
The judges found that the protesters had been incited by him whose plan, they said, was for the Brazilian military to take action, reestablish control and reinstate his authority.
At the period, Bolsonaro's lawyers called the decades-long sentence extremely harsh.
He was also banned from seeking elected position until twenty-sixty - eight years later after the end of his sentence.
The former president called the court case a targeted investigation" and said it was designed to prevent him running in the next presidential race.
